Michelle Obama's Advice For High School Graduates Is Really For All of Us

Solid.

Michelle Obama visited Chicago's Martin Luther King College Preparatory High School last week with personal stories and a surprise Scandal message in tow.

The First Lady grew up in the same South Side neighborhoods as the Class of 2015 graduates who sat before her, which made for a very touching speech about overcoming hardship. "I know the struggles many of you face," she said. "How you walk the long way home to avoid the gangs, how you fight to concentrate on your homework when there's too much noise at home."

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Obama said people often ask her mother: "How on earth did you ever raise kids like Michelle and Craig in a place like South Shore?" To which her mother replies: "I loved them, I believed in them, and I didn't take any nonsense from them."

The First Lady wanted everyone to know that story. Because behind the nightly news stories of communities across the country, like theirs, that face all kinds of challenges and crisis are people who make "good choices every single day."

She then used stories personal to both herself and to the graduating class to drive home two lessons that she now lives by:

Don't ever be afraid to ask for help

"Wherever you are headed, I guarantee you that there will be all kinds of folks who are eager to help you, but they are not going to come knocking on your door to find you. You have to take responsibility to find them."

Be motivated by your failures

"Instead of letting your hardships and failures discourage or exhaust you, let them inspire you. Let them make you even hungrier to succeed."

Obama chose King College Prep for the commencement address after they won her Reach Higher video challenge—they submitted a spoof on Scandal, where Olivia Pope takes the First Lady on as a client and works to get all of the King students to apply for student aid. Before her speech, the First Lady surprised the students with a video from the cast, reports theChicago Sun-Times. "Keep working hard!" said Kerry Washington.